Seeing as I'm about 95% finished with this first book on my family, I'm even more excited this year than I was last February, when I had one long manuscript, not even in chapter form. Then came the The Family History Blog-to-Book Project, and the rest is history, pardon the pun. Once I started getting those chapters and stories here on the blog, the book gathered steam.

Of course, I added much to the research this past year, gaining new relatives and ancestors at every stop along the way. Love that.

So now I'm basically making it pretty, pulling everything together into a finished book. If it can ever be finished actually. But there are always second editions I guess. I just know I'm going to find all the rest of those elusive ancestors after the book is printed and gone out.

History Timelines

I have Family Tree Maker, Ancestory.com's product, and it will generate an ancestor's timeline easily, filling in major historic events along with the person's own life events, births, marriages, deaths. I consider it valuable.

Recently I found Timelines of History online and began using it to find other events I didn't yet have. I used this one when researching the time period my 2nd great grandparents arrived in New Orleans from Baden, Germany via Le Havre, France.

Washington.edu.US. History Timeline:I've used this timeline quite a bit. You'll note the link takes you to my 1700s search, which is the last timeline I was working on. Once on the site, you can search on any decade or date you choose. One of the events I found was the opening of Rockingham County, Virginia's first state public school. My 2nd great grandmother Betsey was born in Virginia, so this helped my story a bit.

The next event I found was on January
26, 1850, when the first German-language daily newspaper in the U.S. was published in New York City. My ancestors came to America in 1852, so this was a good source for their story.

Preceden.com - I admit I love this one. You create your own timeline on their site. Once I saw my ancestors lengthwise across the top showing the states they were born in, I was impressed. I've needed this. You can sign up for a free account, which is what I did. I'll be using this one for a long time.

Our Timelines: A big favorite which I found on Cyndi's List a few years ago, when I'd scour her site for anything and everything to help me with my family history project. This was also before I had Family Tree Maker, so a personalized timeline for my ancestor, for free, was even more desirable. I still use it. It's just fun.